It has already been proposed when the clutch is located at the end of the entrainment assembly, as described in European Patent No. EP-A-O 199 642, to house the control means inside a grooved container forming a guide tube, fixed to a flange connected to the clutch casing, the container comprising a central rotary motor element, so as to create an assembly or module which can be handled and carried.
In this arrangement the control means are mechanical and comprise, on the one hand, a driving part (a screw) carried by the container, fixed in translation and subjected to the action of the electric motor and, on the other hand, a driven part (a nut) fixed in rotation and subjected to the action of the driving part.
Means in the form of complementary ramps are provided on the driving and driven parts (screw and nut system), with displacement of the driven part relative to the supporting means.
Such an arrangement is more bulky axially than the conventional clutch release fork, which itself is very bulky, because the screw passes completely through the clutch release bearing and is engaged partly in the output shaft of the gearbox which is suitably bored out for this purpose.
Moreover, it cannot be employed in a clutch in which the control device is located between the engine and the gearbox and the input shaft of the gearbox passes through the control device, since the driving and driven parts are not able to fit into such an arrangement.
The object of the present invention is to overcome these disadvantages, by providing a new arrangement having mechanical control means in two parts with universal application, forming a compact assembly with the supporting means, whilst providing other advantages.